Norristown man convicted of abusing children

By
Dan Clark, The Times Herald

Thursday, May 29, 2014

COURTHOUSE — A Norristown man was found guilty Wednesday of sexually assaulting a young girl repeatedly between 1998 and 2005 and another young girl once in 2010. Sean Rahatt, 41, of the 1400 block of Markley Street, was found guilty of three felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child less than 16, three felony counts of sexual assault, three felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, two felony counts of aggravated indecent assault, one felony count of aggravated indecent assault of a child, one felony count of aggravated indecent assault of a person less than 16 years old, one felony count of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old, one misdemeanor count of indecent exposure, two felony counts of endangering the welfare of a child, one misdemeanor account of corruption of minors and two misdemeanor counts of indecent assault without the consent of others.

The verdict came after a one-day bench trial in front of Judge Carolyn Carluccio.

Rahatt was allowed to leave court on Wednesday on the same bail, $99,000, he posted shortly after his arrest in April 2013. He will be sentenced after a pre-sentencing investigation. The report, which often takes up to three months to complete, will detail Rahatt’s background to Carluccio so she can make a fair assessment in sentencing him. The report will go into his criminal background and determine whether he has a history of mental illness.

Until his sentencing, Rahatt will be under house arrest and will have to wear an electronic monitoring device.

Prosecuting attorney Kristen Feden said she will be asking for a lengthy sentence, and the first-degree felony charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child comes with a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison.

“We filed a notice of intent to seek mandatories,” Feden said on Thursday.

Feden said during the trial, the prosecution relied mostly on victim and witness testimony and also had video of a conversation between the first victim and Rahatt. According to Feden, Rahatt did not fully admit to the assaults but apologized for anything he has done wrong to the victim. One of the victims testified and other facts were stipulated to in the trial, she said.

An investigation began on April 1, 2013, when one of the victims reported to police that Rahatt had sexually assaulted her from the time she was 5 until she was 12. The victim told police she had been assaulted at different addresses in Norristown, Collegeville and Lansdale.

Police reported that sometime during April 2013, the victim contacted Rahatt by phone. During their conversation he said he was just “showing what he thought was ... love and mistaking it for the unjustified acts on his part and that he was being dumb about it.” He said that what happened between them “occurred in Roman families and was done to keep power in the family.”

On April 16, 2013, Norristown police learned of another report of suspected child abuse. The second victim, who was under 12, reported to Ambler police that she was at Rahatt’s Norristown home during the summer of 2010 when he began to inappropriately touch her while she was lying down. She told police she had to get up and tell him to leave her alone to get him to stop.